BJP’s Jharkhand headache eases, Munda bows out of race

Munda is learnt to have been assured of a Cabinet rank by Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee during their meeting on Thursday. The swearing-in is likely to take place once President K.R. Narayanan returns from abroad on Tuesday.

The PM’s assurance has mellowed down Munda’s belligerence. “There is no question of resigning from the party post or Parliament. I will leave the party whether I am made a minister or not,” Munda told this reporter yesterday.

Jharkhand BJP chief Dukha Bhagat is said to be peeved with the turmoil within the party over the leader of the yet-to-be-born state. “The confusion should be removed. If a decision has been taken by the party, it should be announced immediately,” he said.

The BJP’s national secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is in-charge of party affairs in Jharkhand, yesterday declared that the party had already decided the name of the first chief minister of Jharkhand and that it would be announced after the BJP Legislature Party meeting in Ranchi on Tuesday. The name then would be ratified at a meeting of the NDA allies as well.

“There should be no confusion. The BJP high command’s wishes are clear from the development of the past one week,” Naqvi said, apparently referring to Marandi’s resignation from the Union Cabinet and the PM’s offer of a Cabinet berth to Munda. He replied in the negative when asked whether the party treated Marandi’s projecting himself as the prospective chief minister of Jharkhand or giving a series of interviews as an act of indiscipline since the party was yet to declare him as Jharkhand CM.

A veteran BJP leader like Munda had to lose out to a much younger Marandi because the latter enjoys overwhelming support among the 32-member BJP Legislature Party in Jharkhand. Only four MLAs are learnt to have supported Munda while 23 were in favour of Marandi and five remained indecisive when the party sought their opinion recently.

The BJP leaders claim to enjoy a comfortable majority in the 80-member House due to the support of five Samata Party MLAs, three JD(U) MLAs besides two Independents and one nominated legislator. But they are still trying to rope in Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren to get the support of his 12 MLAs.

“The ball is in Soren’s court now. Our doors are always open for him. He seems to have realised his mistake of breaking away from the NDA and going to Laloo Prasad Yadav. But the initiative for a patch-up has to come from him,” Naqvi told this reporter.